Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Various & Sundry, part twelve

Friday, March 25th, 2005

— I woke up this morning with a distinct phrase in my mind: magnesium fusion triggers. Look, I don’t drive the thing. I’m just ridin’ shotgun…

— Marty called last night and we talked about a subject that’s totally captured his excitement, the new Sony PS Portable. Hey, you’re allowed to get excited about something like this when you’re thirteen. For me, at that age, it was probably Art Linkletter’s “The Game of Life,” or something like that. However, I can’t help but think of this quote from Ben Stein: “I tremble for the day that the next generation has to provide for themselves with what they have learned from their video games.” Relax, Ben. They’ve probably learned more than I ever learned from watching too many hours of “The Avengers,” “The Prisoner,” “Hawaii Five-0” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

— From what I can discern through the Associated Press, Josh and his 623rd Field Artillery unit was with the convoy that came under attack on Sunday morning, but it stayed with the trucks during the battle and sustained no casualties (from a Bruce Schreiner byline story).

— The new brochure we created for the Brass Band Festival is a major hit, according to our friend who’s retiring as director of the Visitor’s Bureau. I told her I hoped our work makes a good impression with her successor. She said she thought it would and will put in a good word for us. Sounds promising, but the new person brings strong connections to her former employer, a previous client of ours turned competitor. All I can do is stay positive and make my case at the appropriate time. I’d insert a link to the Festival, but the site is just too ugly. Wait a second! This is a job for Website Makeover™ Man!

— Dana and I are heading back up to Indy today to check on Bruce. Normally I have my Rotary Club meeting, but we’re dismissed for Good Friday, so we’ll deal with any urgent matters in the studio and then hit the road before it gets too late.

— I decided to google for “magnesium fusion triggers” and found myself reading an overview at GlobalSecurity.org about special weapons facilities on the Indian subcontinent. OK, so what am I supposed to be more scared of, the metastasis of the World Wide Web, unchecked nuclear proliferation in South Asia, or my own dadburn subconscious?

How Wednesdays ought to be

Wednesday, March 16th, 2005

It’s been a good day so far. Long-awaited check in the mail. Successful client presentation. And welcome confirmation that someone reads this log… and appreciates the quiet tragedy of hat loss.

Beware the Dynamic Duo

Sunday, March 13th, 2005

I realized this morning that I’m currently working on three separate “Website Makeovers” and there’s a likelihood that we’ll get at least one more. And I’m not even counting the redesign of our own site, which is long overdue. Hey, maybe I can trademark that phrase— “Website Makeover.” Everybody in the world already has a Website, so we must be entering the Website Makeover™ era! Now Hollywood will have to deal with me when they plan the new TV series— “Extreme Website Makeovers!” Want to redo a Website? Go right ahead, it’s the age of the Website Makeover™ but you’d better not call it that unless you have my permission. And while we’re at it, I think that nobody should be able to call themselves a Webmaster unless they get an advanced degree by doing an Interweb Masters Thesis like Brendan! And Brendan will get his trademark— Interweb Master™ and we’ll put the fear of God into all lowly Web designers and so-called Webmasters. We’ll team up and biff ’em on the head and have costumes and everything (but no capes). Yah-Haaa!

Take this job and love it

Friday, February 18th, 2005

For the second time in the past year I’ve been offered a job. No, I don’t mean a studio project, I mean a real “job” job.

While the furnace man was here yesterday, he asked me if I would work for him. I said, “Well, you can see how little I know about all of this,” and he replied, “All you have to know is to be able to to do what I tell you to do.” He went on to sadly explain how difficult it is to find an assistant who can follow a simple “do-these-ten-things-in-this order” list of tasks. Several months ago a successful dairyman complained to me about how impossible it was to find someone who wanted to become a farmer. “John, work for me and I’ll teach you everything I know,” was his offer. You’ve got to ask yourself, what’s happened to the workforce when self-employed people with gray hair are offering each other apprentice jobs?

I could be operating milking machines every day before dawn and crawling around in basements and attics with a flashlight at night. No, I’m serious. I could be doing that if I wanted to.

We are out of champagne and I’m stuck my dear

Saturday, February 12th, 2005

While running at sunrise this morning I fell into the comfortable pace of two banker friends and they were surprisingly talkative, providing me a 45-minute crash course in basic banking. I actually did learn a lot, but it worries me just a bit that they figured I needed to know it.